Wildlife Smuggling Is a Crisis of Epic Proportion.

Ask the Canada Border Services Agency to crack down on the illegal import of the meat of endangered species. The names of all signatories will be presented to the Agency President.

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The Petition

To John Ossowski, the President of the Canada Border Services Agency:

I was shocked to learn that thousands of pounds of meat of illicitly caught wildlife is smuggled into Canada every year, undetected by customs officers. Much of it arrives in cargo shipments.

The illegal import of ape meat can trigger outbreaks of Ebola and other deadly diseases in Canada.

The rapidly expanding bushmeat industry is horrifically inhumane and inadequate law enforcement allows it to continue to grow.

Much of this meat is from endangered species such as chimpanzees and gorillas which may become extinct in our lifetime if the trafficking of wildlife meat is allowed to continue.

I respectfully urge you to increase the efforts of the Canada Border Services Agency to identify and confiscate shipments containing bushmeat, in order to keep us safe from lethal diseases, protect our nearest relatives from extinction, and help put a stop to the vicious and illegal global trade in wildlife meat.

What is Bushmeat?

In Africa, forest is often referred to as “the bush,” thus the meat of wildlife is called “bushmeat.” This term applies to all wildlife species, many of which are threatened and endangered.

The “bushmeat trade” usually describes the illegal and unsustainable over-hunting of wild animals. Tragically, most bushmeat hunters think there will never be a shortage of animals to hunt. They don’t realize they’re on the verge of driving animals to extinction, forcing themselves out of work, and robbing Africa of its heritage.

How Does Bushmeat Spread Disease?

We’re very closely related to great apes – we share more than 98% of our DNA with chimpanzees, gorillas, and bonobos. As a result, we can transmit many diseases to each other, including HIV/AIDS, Ebola, tuberculosis, and other potentially deadly viruses and bacteria.

Meat from infected great apes harbors these diseases and can carry them into Canada, where it can infect people who handle it or eat it undercooked. Once a person is infected, diseases such as tuberculosis are spread through the air, while others such as the Ebola virus are spread through body fluids, potentially causing an epidemic anywhere in Canada.

When Bobo was a baby clinging to his mother, she was killed, butchered, and sold as meat.

Although the Canada Border Services Agency confiscates hundreds of kilograms of bushmeat annually, thousands of kilograms are smuggled into Canada undetected every year, most of it in cargo shipments that are not inspected. As the global trade in African wild animal meat continues to increase, we need the Canada Border Services Agency to protect us and endangered species by cracking down on this industry.

Add your name to the petition and tell the Canada Border Services Agency it’s unacceptable to let this dangerous and cruelly hunted meat enter Canada.

Every month, thousands of kilograms of illegal wildlife meat is smuggled into Canada, particularly Toronto and Montreal.

Join the movement to stop the smuggling of meat from critically endangered species into Canada – before it’s too late!

Help us get 100,000 signatures to stop the cruelty. Sign PASA’s petition today.

Thousands of gorillas, chimpanzees, and other African wildlife on the brink of extinction are viciously hunted, butchered, and illegally imported throughout Canada. Any one of these shipments can bring an HIV infection, an Ebola epidemic, or a number of other deadly diseases right into your neighborhood. Together we must take action.

Stop this cruelty, save these endangered species, and protect yourselves. Make your voice heard NOW to shut down this horrific and dangerous trade.

Misha’s mother had been brutally killed by hunters so they could illegally sell her body as bushmeat. Can you imagine feeling your dying mother’s heartbeat fade away as you lay pressed against her chest? That is what little Misha felt. When PASA and its member organizations rescued this orphaned baby chimp, her captors were abusing her and keeping her in appalling conditions until she grew big enough to be slaughtered for meat.

The hunting of wild animals in Africa, once a means of sustenance for people in remote villages, has become a rapidly growing black-market industry worth billions of dollars per year. Illicitly hunted wildlife is now a delicacy, with gorillas sold for 20 times the price of a cow.

Sign PASA’s petition today.

Please sign this crucial petition, share it on Facebook, and send it to as many people as possible, to save baby chimpanzees like Misha from becoming orphans and save humans from contracting deadly diseases.

We need to put a stop to the illegal hunting and trafficking of African wildlife meat for three reasons:

CRUELTY TO ANIMALS. African wildlife is often caught with barbaric traps and snares that produceunimaginable suffering. Entire families of chimpanzees and monkeys are shot out of trees, and any babies who survive the fall and are too small to be slaughtered for meat are sold on the black market as pets.

AN EBOLA EPIDEMIC. A number of human Ebola outbreaks in Africa have been caused by people butchering and eating ape meat, and the first human case of HIV was likely contracted in the same way. The trafficking of wild animal meat from Africa can trigger outbreaks of Ebola and other lethal diseases in Canada and throughout the world which kill thousands of people.

EXTINCTION OF OUR CLOSEST RELATIVES. Chimpanzees, gorillas, and bonobos are endangered and the bushmeat crisis has become the greatest threat to their existence. If we don’t act now, they may disappear in our lifetime. We can’t let this happen.